Ava, as the pivot point for the whole season, is in charge of facilitating a lot of the setup “Noblesse Oblige” has to get through. A terrific tracking shot inside Pizza Portal lets us scope the layout of a bank-turned-eatery, while also highlighting Ava’s less-than-stellar knack for recon (Ava’s about as convincing as a ditz as Raylan is as Gary Cooper). Consequently, Boyd earns his second strike mere hours after he’s informed about his first by Ty Walker. With the scene staged like a baseball diamond, the bar answers the question of “who’s on first?” by putting the home plate that is Boyd on the losing end of his first encounter with Walker, who holds attention and his liquor better than the hung-over Boyd can.
Things only get worse from there for the last of the Crowder kin, but part of what underwhelms in “Noblesse Oblige” is that it’s practically one big montage of Boyd learning how badly overmatched he is. When Boyd meets with Walker’s boss – the cowpoke with a saurian smile, Avery Markham – in Ava’s dining room, candles foregrounding the two illustrate for maybe the fifth time this episode that Boyd’s wick doesn’t measure up to his opponent’s. “I guess you ain’t all that big now. Grown. But still just playing pretend,” says Avery, salting Boyd’s humiliation even after receiving a grovelling apology. Obviously, a buffet of crow doesn’t go down nearly as well as a burger and fries, so by wounding Boyd’s pride, Avery’s attempt to end their dispute diplomatically has only put both parties in greater peril.
By association, Ava’s situation deteriorates just as poorly over the course of the day. Things were bad enough when Raylan was the only one dispensing life advice, but now even Avery seems to think he knows what Ava should do better than she does. “You’ll never be more than a token. Something that can be threatened or hurt, just to keep your man in line,” Avery warns Ava, should she fail to find the stomach to make the hard choices. When he leaves, the porcelain urn next to Ava literalizes her current status as such a liability, a fact that neither Boyd nor Ava need stated in the present moment.
The difference between Ava and Boyd is in how their feelings for one another affect their judgment. Though she still has to play ball with the marshals, Ava’s awareness of what’s really going on far exceeds Boyd’s, so she can weigh the input of others on her course of action. In this case, it means offering herself to Boyd, in part because she still loves him, but also because it might be the quickest way to shore up their relationship. Boyd, meanwhile, is so blinded by love, and now ego, that Katherine’s manipulation of Avery doesn’t strike him as the warning sign it should be about whom he shares his secrets and bed with. Last week on Justified, Boyd told Raylan he’d learned to think without arguing with himself, which is a fine way to get where it is you think you need to go. But in this particular case, that paradise Boyd has his sights set on might be hiding a dead end right behind it.
- Stray Thoughts
-Tonight’s big unanswered question: has Boyd seen Chinatown?!?
-Assuming the music rights were cleared (which they weren’t for the use of “Back in Black” as part of Dewey’s last hurrah), that was Dave Brubeck’s “Kathy’s Waltz” playing when Boyd meets Katherine at the hotel. Can ironic use of a song still be on the nose if it doesn’t have any lyrics?
-Something tells me Earl is probably a fan of the SNL digital short “Monster Pals.”
-Choo-Choo’s real name is Mundo, and he likes trains. It’s fun watching the show find a new angle on the oversized oaf character Justified has done plenty of times over the years, as Choo-Choo is only getting more endearing with each episode.
–Justified can be subtle when it wants to when referencing its favorite Westerns, but there’s a certain charm to back-to-back High Noon references taking place in scenes occupied by completely separate characters.
-“Make sure you get his cigarettes.” After spending an afternoon last season cleaning the remains of Mr. Picker off the hotel carpet, Mikey probably doesn’t need a reminder of what Boyd can do with a pack of smokes and some explosives.
-“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to throw-up.”